


The Funniest Joke

by sapphicalexandra



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Airbending & Airbenders, Angst, Drinking, Family Issues, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 20:56:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13796211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphicalexandra/pseuds/sapphicalexandra
Summary: When Tenzin declares him ready for his airbending tattoos, Bumi doesn't agree.





	The Funniest Joke

**Author's Note:**

> I've just realized i've never actually written for this series, and it's also been a while since I've been really *into* it, even if my love has never faded. I've been rewatching some parts of both shows lately, though, and i was re-hit by Feels. Specifically, Aang and Bumi feels. Listen, it is tragic. They /both/ wished Bumi could've filled a specific hole in their lives, and the fact that he didn't caused them both so much pain...so i might've made myself sad writing this.  
> If anyone is interested in this complicated family's dynamic, let me know what you think! If not, i had a blast writing this piece anyway.

The last gashes of air faded as Bumi’s feet softly hit the ground. And that was when the whooping and cheering started.

“You did it, Uncle Bumi!” came Jinora and Ikki’s excited voices.

“That was _amazing!_ ” Meelo’s followed suit. 

“Way to go, Boom!” Kya jumped in as well.

“No need, no need.” Bumi was making a point to bow in front of everyone who was clapping, his mock-formal expression glowing with barely-suppressed joyfulness. “You are too kind!”

“But they’re right, Bumi,” Tenzin said, a genuine smile gentling his lineaments. “You passed your test, rather…colorfully.”

Bumi’s smile didn’t fade, but he raised an eyebrow. “That was a _test_?”

Laughter echoed all around, and Tenzin had to resist the urge to smack his own forehead. “ _Yes_ , brother. What do you think all of this is? Opal and Kai have already passed too.” Bumi’s still-confused gaze followed Tenzin’s finger, which was pointing at the two airbenders. Their smiles were brighter than usual, as they stood proudly amidst the crowd. “You’ve proved to have mastered all thirty-six tiers of airbending, plus I’ll have to admit, Bumi, that your Dragonfly Blast Attack is quite…something.” The smile returned to Tenzin’s lips, a proud twinkle in his eyes. “You’re ready for your tattoos, big brother. It’d be an honor for me to–”

Before Tenzin could even finish his sentence, or the others could start their chorus of congratulations, Bumi burst out laughing.

It wasn’t a sound of relief, or satisfaction, or joy; it was pure unadulterated hilarity, as if Tenzin had just said the funniest joke. It was _entirely_ out of place, everyone knew and felt that, so the silence that fell on Air Temple Island, except for that one unsettling sound, was heavy as a rock. “You can’t…be serious…” Bumi’s boisterous, hysteric voice echoed even louder as a result.

Tenzin’s face morphed in his irritation, but he still tried to keep cool and not match his brother’s volume. “Bumi… _Bumi_ , you’re making a fool out of yourself,” he said between gritted teeth, “and I’m being _very_ serious! You _have_ reached Master level, and the ceremony will be in a few days.”

Something in Tenzin’s tone must’ve finally reached Bumi’s ears, because he stopped laughing as abruptly as he had started. And for the first time, he seemed to take in his surroundings: his entire family – well, except for his mother – in front of him; all the airbenders and Acolytes watching him; even the _Avatar_ and her team who stood to the side, straining their necks to see what the commotion was about. They were clearly all there to witness the ultimate test of those who had been there from the start of the Air Nation new era.

Everyone was staring at _him_ in particular; expectantly, eagerly waiting for his real, _proper_ reaction to the news. Everyone except Kya. Her gaze, Bumi suddenly realized, seemed to match that _something_ deep in his stomach that had suddenly started to twist and turn.

He purposefully averted her searching eyes.

“Well then,” Bumi started speaking, turning towards Opal and Kai with a smile that was all teeth. “Congratulations, you two! I’ll eagerly look forward to seeing your ceremony! Such an accomplishment, very well-done, kids!”

Tenzin cleared his throat. “Bumi, have you heard what I–”

“Oh, I heard you loud and clear, little brother. But I have to…politely…decline.”

Again, the silence was louder than any word. Eyes were popping all around, faces stunned, their only action staring from one brother to the other.

Tenzin’s mouth hung open. “E – _excuse_ me? You… _decline_?”

Bumi plopped his hands on his sides, his expression nonchalant as he nodded. “Yes, you heard that right. C’mon, what’s an old fart like me got to do with being an airbending _master_? Look! Even Bumju is laughing.”

Bumju was floating not far behind Bumi’s shoulder, not even making his usual squeaking sounds, let alone _laughter_. Tenzin spared the spirit no more than a dumbfounded look, taking advantage of that time to collect himself. “ _You_ ,” he had to speak slowly to not completely lash out, breathing in and out like his father had taught him, “have spent _five_ years training…what do you think that was _for_? Was this…all a _joke_ to you?!”

Korra had come closer to the scene, now standing next to Tenzin, smiling pacifyingly. “C’mon, Bumi, this is an incomparable milestone that you’ve reached! You should be happy and proud of your accompl–”

But her voice seemed to go unheard; Bumi was staring at his brother. “So _what_? Not everyone can be as uptight as you, and let’s be real for a moment,” Bumi pointed at his head with both hands, smirking wildly, “can you really see this glorious mane going away? I’ve cultivated it for a very long–”

“Bumi,” Kya seemed to have come out of a trance, and she was looking sadly at her brother, “please, don’t _do_ this…”

It was already too late to stop the not-so-figurative smoke coming out of Tenzin’s ears. “Why, why can’t you ever be _serious_ , not even once in your _life_! _I_ am your Master, and I’m telling you that you’re ready for the highest honor in our, in our _father’s_ culture, and you’re spitting on it like it’s the funniest joke?!”

“I didn’t ask you to _bestow_ me this great _honor,_ oh dear _Master_. I was perfectly content just the way that I was!”

“Then maybe you’re right and you’re not worthy of it at all!”

The brothers’ voices had gotten so loud, their anger so focused on each other than nothing else reached them, not even the Avatar’s or their sister’s attempts at calming them down. When the last words were said and done, that seemed futile anyway.

Bumi and Tenzin stared each other for another long moment. Then, Bumi shrugged. “Yes, I would think so,” he said. Not looking at anyone else, he turned around and walked away.

“Bumi!” Kya called out to him. When that didn’t do anything, she turned her head, “Tenzin…”

Tenzin didn’t even glance at her. In that moment, he wouldn’t admit, not even to himself, that he had regretted his last words the second after he had uttered them. Instead, with a sound of frustration and a gush of air that raised his robes, he walked out of the scene just as well. Nobody called after him, left too shocked to know what to do.

“I…” Korra looked at Kya. “What’s gotten into Bumi? Why would he…?”

Kya shook her head. Silently, she was the third one to walk away.

oooOooo

It wasn’t hard to find her brother. Hitting the town, Kya only had to try two of his usual bars before she stumbled on the right one, his laughter making her turn her head as soon as she entered.

Bumi sat at a table in a corner, listening, as well as most people in the room, to a Pro Bending match on the radio.

“Whooo! Get it, get it,” Bumi, back in his old military clothes, was inciting the game, a fist pumping in the air, while the other was curled around a bottle of beer.

Kya sat down next to him without saying a word, not making any move to gain his attention or stop his cheering. She simply waited. She knew he had noticed her.

It only took a few minutes before he stopped what he was doing, dropping both his fist and his bottle on the table, albeit not before chunking down a good portion of it. “What brings you here, sis?” he asked her jovially.

She was having none of it. “I thought you had stopped drinking.”

He rolled his eyes. “C’mon, it’s just a beer, don’t be such a spoil sport.”

And she was surely having none of _that_. “Look, I’m not here to change your mind or anything of the sort, I know how pointless that would be. I’m just asking you to talk to Tenzin.”

Bumi averted his eyes, frowning as he sighed. “What for? You’re right, I won’t change my mind, so what would even be the point of _that_?”

“At least tell him the _truth_ ,” Kya stressed.

 Bumi frowned harder. “The truth about _what_? Jeez, I thought I was the one drunk here…”

“Bumi,” Kya’s annoyance couldn’t help but fade, replaced by a sad note in her voice, “the truth about why you don’t want your airbending tattoos.”

 Bumi visibly tensed. “I – I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t try this with me, Bumi. Not _me_. You don’t even need to mention it, because I _know_. But I just wish…that you would talk about it with Tenzin, too. _Look_ at us, at what happened all those years because we never had the courage to face the root of our problems... I’m _tired_ of that. Our family is finally, _finally_ , in a good place again, and I want it to _stay_ that way. Please, Bumi, if not for you, at least do it for me.”

Bumi didn’t say anything; he simply kept staring fixedly at the glass of his bottle.

Kya placed her hands on his closed fists as she got up. “At least think about it,” were her parting words.

oooOooo

Bumi didn’t even try to mask his footsteps as he stepped onto the meditation pavilion. Sparing only a look at the straightened shoulders of his little brother, he walked up to the side, sitting himself on the floor with his back against the railing.

A few minutes passed without neither of them moving or breaking the silence; Bumi simply stared at the view of the sea, pretending to believe that his brother was still meditating.

“You know,” Bumi finally talked past the sandpaper feeling in his mouth, “I remember Dad coming here to meditate even when I was very little. I was always told to not disturb him, but of course I never listened. So I sprinted all the way here,” Bumi’s eyes were twinkling with far-off memories, staring not at what was in front of him, as his hands gesticulated wildly in the air, “climbing all over his shoulders and being a whole around pain in the _ass_. He tried to reprimand me at first, but he always ended up playing with me.” Bumi chuckled under his breath, warmth spreading from someplace inside of him. “He used to throw me in air – far away from where Mom could see us, or she would yell at us – and I laughed so hard, as he made me fly higher and higher every time…” The elated smile on Bumi’s face turned rueful. “Who knows, maybe because he hoped I’d end up doing it by myself.”

As Bumi paused for a moment, Tenzin had his eyes still closed. However, his entire body was tense, rigid on the spot, his fists almost trembling pressed against one another. That was all Bumi needed to know that he was listening.

“I used to come here too, from time to time,” Bumi went on. “I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but enough to know that it was too late for me to ever be an airbender. So I came here, and I mimicked Dad’s pose, and I prayed…I prayed to the spirits. “Please, make me an airbender, please, I’ll give up all my toys, just make me an airbender’.” Bumi’s chuckle was far louder this time, as he brought his eyes squarely on his brother, who had finally opened his. “Well, the spirits have granted me my wish! Sixty years too late.”

Tenzin opened his mouth, clearly about to say something, but Bumi didn’t let him.

“C’mon, Ten-Ten, you can’t deny the irony of that. And what am I supposed to _do_ with it now? I’ve already done my time! I’ve traveled the world, I helped a few people here and there, I found my purpose exactly for who I _was_. So _why_ would the spirits make me an airbender _now_ , when I, who should’ve been born one, _wasn’t_?”

“Bumi…”

“ _No_ , Tenzin. Dad, and _me_ , spent all those years _desperately_ wishing for this very fact! You weren’t _there_. You never had to see that hollow look in Dad’s eyes, the sad disappointment he couldn’t help but feel whenever he saw _me_. So if I was supposed to be an airbender all along, _that_ was when it was needed! I could’ve helped ease Dad’s pain! Instead, he had to wait _ten_ more years. When _you_ – when you were born, and the air immediately moved around you, Dad spent the whole day _crying_. Kya did, too. She asked me if that meant he now loved you more than us. No, I told her. It just means he’s not alone anymore.” Bumi passed his hand over his entire face, suddenly feeling very tired deep in his bones. “Yeah, Dad still loved us, and I loved _him_ , so _much_ …so it was never fair, not to him, not to me, not to _us_ , that I wasn’t an airbender. You ever thought about the what ifs? About how things would’ve been different, if I had been one? Oh, I have, lately more than ever. I know…that I would’ve been exactly the same, but not _quite_. I would’ve still joined the UF, because that was my calling. I would’ve shown Dad all the new ways an airbender could be. I would’ve represented him and the Air Nomads everywhere I went. _You_ would’ve still stayed at the temple, and we would’ve shared that responsibility, you know? To carry on. You wouldn’t have had all the pressure solely on your shoulders.”

Tenzin still didn’t seem able to speak, so Bumi didn’t see any point in lingering. He got up, placing a hand on Tenzin’s shoulder. “I am, and will always be, the non-bender son of Avatar Aang. I spent too many ears accepting that fact, to renounce it now. So I hope you can see that me, being an airbender, can only ever be…a joke. The funniest joke. And jokes don’t become masters.”


End file.
